Smack—! A sharp bursting sound echoed through the tidy bathroom. Seungun struck his own cheek once more without hesitation. They say humans are animals of adaptation, but no matter how many times he gets hit, he can’t adapt to this damn pain.
When you think about it that way, it means humans only adapt to things that are comfortable for the body. If it’s unpleasant to look at, cumbersome to the body, and causes pain, selfishly they can’t accept it as if it’s always the first time whenever they experience it. Just as he was about to slap his cheek once more, the bathroom door opened wide without warning.
“There probably aren’t any towels, so I brought one folded up for now…”
He was caught red-handed in an absurd position, standing upright, looking in the mirror with his bright red palm raised beside his face. Gi Siyoung entered the bathroom, sending a meaningful gaze. In his hands was a large bath towel. Only then did the empty towel cabinet enter Seungun’s view. He had been caught doing something foolish at the most terrible timing.
“……”
Seungun stepped aside silently. Gi Siyoung, who silently put the towel he brought in there, slowly straightened his back. He stared at Seungun intently through the clean mirror rather than through his eyes. Feeling that gaze, Seungun made an unsuitable smile. His intention to awkwardly escape this situation was clear, but Gi Siyoung asked with doubt.
“Was there a bug on your face or something?”
“No? I mean, yes.”
“What kind of answer is that.”
Gi Siyoung looked worriedly at Seungun, who seemed out of his mind since earlier. Warm hands cupped his cheeks. There was a slight heat on the slightly flushed cheek. Gi Siyoung’s eyes, which had been looking there, crinkled like a mischievous child.
“Oh, it’s real. Maybe because it’s hot. There’s a flying insect.”
Gi Siyoung showed him a very small flying insect that had been crushed to death on Seungun’s cheek, removing it with his finger. Under the bright lights, Seungun confirmed the deceased creature with weary eyes.
“It must have stuck on you when you came in from outside.”
“I wondered why it kept bothering me…”
Seungun stepped aside, turned on the cold water, wet his hands, and scrubbed them with soap. He rubbed his face with his cold hands and washed his face refreshingly. After Seungun finished washing his hands, he wiped his face with a dry towel.
Siyeong also followed and washed his hands. Taking the towel, he dried every bit of moisture between his fingers, then rolled the used towel into the basket where used towels were collected.
“You’ve been strange all day today.”
“What has?”
“Did that shaman ruin your mood earlier? Why are you like this?”
“……”
“Or did the trainer’s sales pitch ruin your mood?”
Seungun shook his head from side to side. The voice asking out of pure curiosity was so sweet it was like a honey skein. If something tangible came out each time Gi Siyoung spoke, Seungun would want to suck it up without a trace, without any shame or anything.
“Seungun-ssi?”
Gi Siyoung’s hand digs into his hair. The fingers sweeping over like a comb are cool thanks to the cold water. He pressed his slightly heated cheek against that wrist. The hand that had been arranging the voluminous hair pouring down like a waterfall suddenly pulled it back powerfully.
Seungun let out a single “Ah” sound and tilted his head back. Under the lights so bright they could pierce his eyes, Gi Siyoung was tilting his head and looking down. Gulp, he swallowed. Warmth and indifference coexisted in those eyes. Those eyes licked Seungun’s features carefully as if observing.
“Why didn’t you debut when you were young?”
He asked in a genuinely curious voice.
“What?”
It was such an absurd question that he was dumbfounded.
“If things went well, we could have met even earlier… Adults around you would have enticed you to try being a child model or something, didn’t they all have eyes to see?”
“Don’t say such nonsense.”
When Seungun shook his head, the regretful touch left at once.
“I’m really curious.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung reached out and caressed Seungun’s forehead, bridge of his nose, short philtrum, and plump lip line. Like a precise machine gauging proportions, his hands rubbed every surface of his face.
“Are you the type who became pretty as you grew up?”
“……”
“Next time we go to your house, show me pictures of when you were young.”
“I don’t have any of those.”
“Lies. Where is there someone who doesn’t have them.”
“I really don’t have any.”
“Okay.”
There was no sign of a lie. He recalled the ghost-like house with nothing in it. Gi Siyoung nodded with a thin smile without pouring out tedious questions like why not, how did they disappear, were they never there to begin with, or did he lose them all in an accident. Thoughtful eyes swept over his face.
“You look tired.”
“We woke up after sleeping two hours. Even ordinary beasts don’t do that. Right now, Siyoung-ssi being so energetic seems like a mutant.”
Gi Siyoung smiled, showing his even teeth.
“You really do seem to need exercise. I’ll get you a membership somewhere else, not that place from earlier. Go there and start with fitness. It’d be even better if we do personal training together there.”
Gi Siyoung recalled the fact that the place he was going to introduce didn’t have shower facilities. That meant Seungun would have to go home with his body drenched in sweat. Seungun, who had been watching Gi Siyoung giggling about whatever he was thinking, quietly spoke up.
“I’m tired and want to get some sleep.”
“Want to go to the bedroom?”
“What are you going to do, Siyoung-ssi?”
“Me, well. I have a lot to do.”
“Are you going to look at your script?”
“Script?”
“Please look at it next to me. I’m a heavy sleeper, so you can read out loud if you want.”
“……”
Seungun made a strange request for someone trying to sleep—to look at the script next to him. It wasn’t impossible to do. Gi Siyoung nodded. The bedroom, illuminated at a brightness conducive to good sleep, was easier on the eyes than the bathroom. They say people can’t sleep well in other people’s houses, but Seungun found this house exceptionally comfortable.
Gi Siyoung pulled back the blanket. Seungun lay down there and settled in. He covered himself with the blanket and curled up in a round shape like a bird nesting. The heavy, soft bedding pressed down on his body just right. When Gi Siyoung manipulated something, the scenery beyond the window that had been clearly visible turned pitch black.
Soon, rustling sounds came from outside, and Gi Siyoung appeared. He wore protective glasses for his eyesight and was holding a mug with steam rising from it. As soon as he appeared, there was a fragrant tea smell. Seungun lifted the blanket and closed his eyes, feeling the presence entering beside him. Gi Siyoung, who heavily occupied the spot next to him, opened the script.
Rustle, rustle.
The light sound of the script cover turning and pages being flipped to find the page that needed to be read. It was a sound he always heard only through earphones, only through speakers. Gi Siyoung, who quietly sipped warm tea and found the right page, appreciated it as if embroidering letters with his eyes.
The moments when he turned the pages were irregular. He stayed long where he needed to stay long, and in sections he passed through quickly, the sound of turning pages came faster.
“Hearing that sound makes me sleep well.”
At Seungun’s drowsy voice coming from inside the blanket, Gi Siyoung slightly turned his head that had been focused on the script.
“You talk as if you’ve been listening to it from long ago.”
“……”
No answer again. Seungun fidgeted and discovered Gi Siyoung’s left forearm that had entered the blanket. Relief somehow came from the close distance.
Gi Siyoung, who noticed Seungun discovering his own hand inside the layered blankets and hesitating without being able to do this or that, wriggled his fingers between them. It was a hand with a clear purpose of interlocking fingers.
The interlocked fingers made his heart pound. There was a fearless certainty in Gi Siyoung’s actions.
Seungun, slightly captured by drowsiness, felt the held hand moving outside the blanket. When moist warmth touched the back of his hand, he lifted his sleepy eyes. Outside his eyelids, Gi Siyoung was smiling broadly while kissing the back of Seungun’s hand. He couldn’t take his eyes off the smile of a man who had nothing to fear in the world. So much so that no other thoughts came after that.
He is affectionate. If asked to show how affectionate a prickly and sensitive person can be, he would point to him. Everyone who met him… must have tasted his affection.
If Gi Siyoung discovered the reality dirtier than the sewage in the gutter, the reality of digging grave sites and waving flags waiting for someone to get caught, as the shaman said…
Ah, he didn’t even want to imagine beyond that.
He would probably glare at him with a face more terrifying than the Gi Siyoung he witnessed in his nightmare. Seungun began to fear both the beginning and the end.
